María Viviana Collazo
Medical Toxicology has not had a decisive impact in Chile regarding the design of public policies to provide environmental justice. This is due to external resistance, but also to the low institutional strength of the medical discipline in this country. From two critical situations that chronically affect populations in Coronel, and Quintero – Puchuncaví cities, it is possible to observe the absence of policies that comprehensively address the serious environmental problems. In August 2018, a total of 408 people were affected during one of the episodes of air pollution in the community of Quintero. The responses from toxicology have not been scientifically appropriate. In Coronel town, various toxicological analyzes of blood and urine are being carried out on children, which demonstrate contamination by cadmium, lead, arsenic and other heavy metals. This is based on long-standing industrial pollution and inaccuracies from epidemiology and toxicology
